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| What fate for Our Sabah's heritage buildings?? By: Richard Nelson Sokial |
| I received a late night call from the Daily Express editor last week with some bad news - a fire had destroyed the last remaining row of pre-war shophouses that I had been researching in Beaufort. I was dismayed by this unexpected turn of events as I had only just prepared an article to highlight these shophouses for architectural heritage conservation this week. What was supposed to be an interesting article to showcase the beauty of these historical buildings has turned into an eulogy for the loss of State heritage. The old pre-war shophouses of Beaufort were a historical testimony of British Colonial presence in the interior division named by L.P.Beaufort, Governor of Labuan and British North Borneo from 1895 to 1900. The unique architectural features of these shophouses, which are built on stilts are found only in Beaufort and was one of the best kept secrets among tourists traveling to this town. Unfortunately, these qualities have remained unappreciated to this day. This is not the first time that old heritage buildings in Beaufort have burnt down due to negligence and indifference. In 2003, the first row of the pre-war shophouses were burnt down. One would expect that the devastating loss of heritage fabric would prompt the state government to take preventative measures to protect the last remaining block of old Beaufort shophouses from harm. But, like any other heritage buildings in the State, it was neglected. And now it has been destroyed. Despite the numerous attempts to highlight the importance of preserving the state architectural heritage ,the slow and non chalant response by the state government to protect the old heritage buildings in Sabah bestrays the flippant attitude that the state government has and its lack of commitment in safeguarding the achitectural heritage of Sabah. I am quite sure that after this article is published ,the relevant departments will be scrambling to issue statements saying 'oh, but actually we already did that and did this". but this are the usual excuses made to escape blame in the aftermath of such and incident. And after all the controversy has died down ,promises of action get swept under the rug as usual. Were there any government policies drawn up to safeguard these old buildings in efforts to preserve them? Were any additional safety features built on site to minimise the fire risk? Did the authorities meet with the shop owners to discuss how best to preserve these historical shophouses.? Fire hydrants, anyone? It is rediculous that fire truck has to be despatched from Papar, 50 km from Beaufort when these shophouses stood at the edge of Padas River. It doesn't take a genius to see that adequate steps could and should have been taken to minimise the fire risk. The harsh reality is, these historical buildings has been neglected for years prior to the fire, period. What saddens me most is that despite the ongoing efforts to protect our traditional houses and heritage buildings, to date not a single Sabah politician or prominent state leader has stepped forward to publicly support architectural conservation efforts norlend any assistance that might help. All the support to date has come from a handful of NGOs, the public and readers of Daily Express, to whom I am most grateful. it is because of this that I worry not for the future of heritage buildings but also whether this is an indication of the kind of commitment and interest our elected reps may in safeguarding the built heritage of Sabah. The photos here were taken during the recent Chinese New Year celebrations and are possibly the last photos ever to be taken of the old Beaufort Shophouses before they were destroyed by the fire. |
| The irony was that while I was taking these photos, I was thinking to myself how it would be before these remaining old shophouses become a thing of the past? Sadly, my fears were confirmed last week when these buildings went down in flames. An upcoming article will show exactly how much irreversable damage has been done to the state in terms of historical and architectural loss. hasn't the State government realised by now that heritage buildings are a potential source of income for Tourism and the likes? Just take a look at the old Victorian houses along the most famous street in San Francisco, USA. Or the old Chinese shophouses on Orchard Road in Singapore. Or even the heritage Row shophouses in Kuala Lumpur. The State of malacca and Penang are making millions of ringgit in Tourism revenue by promoting their old shophouses through architectural conservation and rehabilatation. And here, we are letting our heritage buildings burn down or rot to pieces while the continue to build mega shopping mall projects in Sabah to the point of saturation, even though shopping trend nowadays is shifting back to the small shops as consumers worldwide are gettng bored of the immense and overwhelming scale of megastores. Seriously, don't our state leaders ever read news other then politics? Where is moral conscience to preserve the heritage of the local community? When will they finally understand that the true development is manifested not only in building more new structures but having enough wisdom to preserve some of the old. Why are our old shophouses and heritage buildings not included on tourism brochures? Is it because they are not pretty enough for the tourists? The loss of the old Beaufort shophouses goes beyond its achitectural and historical impact. Socially, people in the community are displaced and deprived of the familiar nodes and congregation areas. Even if new shophouses are built, it will not be able to replace the genius loci of the original place. |
| Monday,4th April 2005 |
| Urgency in saving old buildings lacking !! |
| QUOTE :- " All we hear infrequently are half hearted statements made by the related authorities to satisfy the public's demand for answers to this issue. But, once the issue dies down , it's back to the golf course for these people. Where are the follow-up measures?" |
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| COMMENTS |
| Anonymous Says :- I can bet you that those idiots sitting on high office are care-less and couldn't be bothered of what heritage or architectural values all about. Worst still, perhaps they are the ones calling arsonist to set fire on these historical buildings to pave way for new developments in which they will benefit. This is why I can never respect these idiots so-called politicians running the state. |